Verrier Elwin | |
|---|---|
 Verrier Elwin | |
| Born | (1902-08-29)29 August 1902 |
| Died | 22 February 1964(1964-02-22) (aged 61) |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom (1902–1947) India (1947–1964) |
| Alma mater | Merton College, Oxford |
| Occupations | anthropologist,ethnologist |
| Known for | Study ofTribes of India |
| Notable work | The Baiga (1939) The Muria and their Ghotul (1947) |
| Spouse(s) | Kaushalaya (Kosi), Lila. |
| Awards | Padma Bhushan (1961) |
Harry Verrier Holman Elwin (29 August 1902 – 22 February 1964)[1] was aBritish-bornIndiananthropologist,ethnologist andtribal activist. He is best known for his early work with theBaigas andGonds ofOrissa andMadhya Pradesh incentral India. He later also worked on the tribals of severalNorth East Indian states especiallyNorth-East Frontier Agency (NEFA).
Elwin served as the deputy director of theAnthropological Survey of India upon its formation in 1945. Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru later appointed Elwin as an adviser on tribal affairs for north-eastern India, and went on to become the Anthropological Adviser to the Government ofNEFA. He was awarded the third highest civilian honour of thePadma Bhushan.
Elwin was a prolific researcher and writer. His autobiography,The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, posthumously won him the 1965Sahitya Akademi Award inEnglish Language.
Harry Verrier Holman Elwin was born on 29 August 1902 in Dover. He was the son ofEdmund Henry Elwin, then theAnglican bishop ofSierra Leone. Harry was educated atDean Close School andMerton College, Oxford,[1] where he received his degrees of BA First Class in English Language and Literature,MA, and DSc. He also remained thePresident ofOxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU) in 1925. At Oxford, he also took a Double First in English and in Theology, before being ordained a priest in theChurch of England.[citation needed]
In 1926 Elwin was appointed Vice-Principal ofWycliffe Hall, Oxford and in the following year he became achaplain atMerton College, Oxford.[2] However, at the age of 25, he went to India as a missionary to undertake humanitarian work. For this, he joined the Christa Seva Sangha (CSS), an austere missionary society of theAnglican Franciscans then headquartered inPoona.[2] HistorianRamachandra Guha notes that the CSS hoped to 'indigenize' Christianity, with its members wearingkhadi, eating vegetarian food, and devising a liturgy which incorporated elements of Indian music, art, and architecture.[3]
Over the years, he was influenced by the philosophies ofMahatma Gandhi andRabindranath Tagore. He quickly threw in his lot with the Congress, winning Gandhi's affection and becoming a camp follower and occasional cheerleader to the popular movement against British rule. Seeking fuller immersion in the toil, the sufferings, the poverty of India, he resolved to make his home among the Gonds. He first joined Christian Service Society in Pune. The first time he visited the central India, now the states ofMadhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, and parts of easternMaharashtra, was with an Indian from Pune, Shamrao Hivale. For the first time, he visited a remote village in the forests of Mandla district. Hivale and he were to spend some twenty years in Central India, living with and fighting for tribal rights. Their studies on the tribes are some of the earliest anthropological studies in the country. In 1954, he was appointed anthropological adviser to the Indian Government, with the special reference to the hill tribes of the north east. Moving to Shillong, he served for a decade as a leading missionary of what he liked to call 'Mr Nehru's Gospel for tribes'. He participated in theIndian independence movement, and in 1930 Gandhi said he regarded Elwin as a son.[4]
He first abandoned the clergy, to work withMahatma Gandhi and theIndian National Congress, then converted toHinduism in 1935 after staying in a Gandhian ashram,[5] and split with the nationalists over what he felt was an overhasty process oftransformation andassimilation for the tribals. Verrier Elwin is best known for his early work with theBaigas andGonds ofOrissa andMadhya Pradesh incentral India, and he married a 13 year old member of one of the communities he studied.
He came out with numerous works on various tribal groups in India, the best acclaimed being those on Maria and Baigas.
After India attained independence in 1947, he was asked by Nehru to find solutions to the problems that emerged among the tribal peoples living in the far northeastern corner of India, theNorth East Frontier Agency (NEFA). He was also a Fellow of theIndian National Science Academy.[6]
In time he became an authority on Indiantribal lifestyle and culture, particularly on theGondi people.[5] He served as the deputy director of theAnthropological Survey of India upon its formation in 1945.[7] Post-independence, he took up Indian citizenship.[8] Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru appointed him as an adviser on tribal affairs for north-eastern India, and later he was Anthropological Adviser to the Government ofNEFA (nowArunachal Pradesh.[9] His philosophy towards the north-east was partially responsible in its disconnect from the modern world.[10]
The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of thePadma Bhushan in 1961.[11] His autobiography,The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin won him the 1965Sahitya Akademi Award inEnglish Language, given by theSahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.[12]
Verrier Elwin wrote – "The message of theghotul – that youth must be served, that freedom and happiness are more to be treasured than any material gain, that friendliness and sympathy, hospitality and unity are of the first importance, and above all that human love – and its physical expression – is beautiful, clean and precious, is typically Indian."[13]
On 4 April 1940 Elwin married Kaushalaya (Kosi) from theGond tribe, living in Raythwar (Raithwar) village of present-dayDindori district in Madhya Pradesh, with whom he lived and worked. While he was 37 then, she was 13 years old. Within few months of their first meeting, Elwin proposed for marriage to her parents who refused due to existing tribe-based traditions. Elwin married Kosi under theSpecial Marriage Act, 1872 by what he called 'love marriage by capture.' The colonial law was aimed for inter-religious and inter-racial marriages. This was followed by a four-day Gond wedding. They had two sons, Jawahar Singh, born in 1941, and Vijay.[9] Elwin had an ex-parte divorce in 1949, at theCalcutta High Court, writing in his autobiography, "I cannot even now look back on this period of my life without a deep sense of pain and failure"[14]
Elwin remarried a woman called Lila, belonging to the Pardhan Gond tribe in nearby Patangarh, moving with her toShillong in the early 1950s. They had three sons, Wasant, Nakul and Ashok.[15] His marriage to Lila connected Verrier toJangarh Singh Shyam, the Gond artist.[16]
In January 1954, Elwin became the first foreigner to become an Indian citizen.[3]
After a long illness, Elwin died inDelhi on 22 February 1964[2] after a heart attack.[17][18] His widow Lila died in Mumbai in 2013, aged about 80, shortly after the demise of their eldest son, Wasant.[19]
In 2006, Kosi was still living in a hut in Raythwar, their son Jawahar having died. Vijay, also died young.[9]
Many of Elwin's books were subsidised and not profitable for publishers. In the late 1980s, his wife provided theNorth-Eastern Hill University with funds in his memory to encourage reading and revisiting his works.[20] BureaucratNari Rustomji compiled the first anthology of Elwin's writings to 'revive interest in one of the most outstanding champions of tribal people.'Verrier Elwin, Philanthropologist: Selected Writings, edited by Rustomji was jointly published byNorth-Eastern Hill University Publications andOxford University Press in 1989. The latter had previously published many of Elwin's works.[20] The historianRamachandra Guha's biographySavaging the Civilized: Verrier Elwin, His Tribals, and India (1999) brought renewed attention in India to Elwin's life and career.
